


Right Side Of Living

by callmevenji



Category: Love Simon (2018), Love Victor (TV 2020)
Genre: F/M, Halloween Challenge, I promise, M/M, Past Character Death, and i mean, but it isnt upsetting, lake and felix are in an established relationship, mia and andrew are also dating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:13:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26903434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callmevenji/pseuds/callmevenji
Summary: Victor and his family move to Shady Creek when they start experiencing paranormal stuff at their house, until finally Victor and his friends decide to contact whoever is haunting their apartment.
Relationships: Benjamin "Benji" Campbell & Victor Salazar, Benjamin "Benji" Campbell/Victor Salazar, Lake Meriwether & Felix Weston, Lake Meriwether/Felix Weston, Mia Brooks & Andrew Spencer, Mia Brooks/Andrew Spencer
Comments: 17
Kudos: 34
Collections: Venji Fic Fests: Halloween 2020





	Right Side Of Living

**Author's Note:**

> This is my contribution to the Venji Fic Fest: Halloween 2020! Enjoy this silly one-shot and happy halloween! Boooh!

Victor shielded his eyes from the sun and looked up at the old building that he was now supposed to call home. A set of concrete stairs with a rusty looking railing led to the entryway of the apartment complex, the grass around it looked well cared for and the windows looked to be brand new, but everything else seemed… old.

Armando Salazar grabbed one out of the dozens of boxes in their u-haul and looked around. “Well, Salazars, what do you think?” 

Everyone stared at the building in different states of unsureness.

“It looks… cozy.” His wife smiled tightly. “I’m sure we’ll be really happy here, right kids?”

A murmur of agreements followed.

“Well, let’s get all of these boxes inside.” Armando climbed up the set of concrete stairs that led to the main door of the apartment building. “Adrian, you are in charge of supervising, alright buddy?”

Adrian nodded excitingly as everyone else grabbed a box from their u-haul, and followed suit.

Victor looked around at his new surroundings, the paint on the walls seemed to be chipping and the ceilings were stained with humidity. He adjusted the box he was carrying and followed his dad up a flight of stairs.

Victor was relieved to learn that their apartment was only on the second floor, carrying all the boxes inside wouldn’t take as long as he had initially thought. His dad stopped in front of an old wooden door with a shiny metallic 206 screwed into it.

“This is it.” Armando balanced the box in one of his arms and grabbed the key out of his back pocket, everyone waited expectantly for him to open the door. He turned the knob and frowned. “Huh, the door was already open.”

“Well, let’s make sure that doesn’t happen again, everyone lock after yourselves, alright?” Isabel instructed. 

“Yeah, yeah but move, this box is really heavy.” Pilar rolled her eyes and pushed everyone to enter the apartment. Victor followed her, he left the box in an empty space of what he supposed would become the living room and decided to quickly look around.

His parents had sold most of their old furniture before moving and they had already bought and placed some of their new stuff. A piano sat against one of the walls with built in bookcases flanking it, there was a fireplace in the opposite wall and a small sofa had been placed right in the middle of the room he was in, he supposed that wouldn’t be its final place. He turned around and was able to see the kitchen from where he was standing and a hallway that most likely led to the bedrooms.

“Ándale, m’ijo, let’s go get more boxes.” Armando clapped him on the back and pushed him towards the door. Exploring would have to wait.

Victor lost count of the times he walked back and forth from the u-haul to the apartment, but 30 minutes later Armando finally carried the last box in. “Well, familia, I think the unpacking can wait, why don’t we go get something to eat? I’m thinking pizza.”

Adrian jumped up and down. “Yes! Pepperoni!”

“Sure, sounds good.” Pilar smiled for the first time since they had arrived. Everyone else agreed.

Victor carried Adrian out of the apartment as he squealed, Pilar laughed and followed them out.

“Mando, don’t forget to lock.” Isabel reminded her husband.

“Oh, right!” Armando grabbed his keys and made sure the door was properly locked before walking after his family.

* * *

“That was amazing, you have to admit that the pizza is better here than in Texas, Pilar.” Victor sighed contentedly, they were walking back towards their apartment, the pizza place they had gone to had, thankfully, been a walking distance from their new place since no one wanted to get back in their car after their long drive from Texas.

Pilar crossed her arms. “I wouldn’t move thousands of miles away from my friends just for better pizza, I’d eat soggy pizza for the rest of my life if that meant I could go back.”

Isabel put her arm around his daughter’s shoulders. “Come on, honey, I’m sure you’ll feel better once school starts.”

Pilar shrugged. “Yeah, maybe.”

They arrived back at the apartment complex, they stood in front of apartment 206 and waited for Armando to unlock it, he pushed the door and frowned. “What the-?” He pushed the door again, but it wouldn’t budge, he took a step back from the door and threw himself against it. The door barely opened an inch but everyone stared in shock as they heard something falling hard on the other side of the door.

“What was that?” Isabel asked as she tried to peer through the small opening. She frowned and turned to the rest of her family. “Did we leave any boxes propped against the door?”

Pilar crossed her arms. “Not me. I left everything in the living room.” 

Armando frowned. He and Victor finally managed to push the door wide open after several tries. All of their boxes were blocking their entry to the house. “Ay Dios mío, how did this happen?”

Everyone started moving the boxes out of the way until a path was cleared. 

“Maybe our new neighbors were playing a prank on us?” Armando thought out loud. 

Isabel rolled her eyes and entered the apartment, everyone started following suit but Victor and Pilar were stopped by a voice.

“Oh hey! You must be the new tenants.” A scrawny looking guy called out from the staircase. “I’m Felix, your upstairs neighbor.” He smiled and shook both of their hands with more force than was necessary. “If you ever need me, you can just knock on your ceiling.”

“Um, hi, I’m Victor and this is my sister Pilar.” 

“Are you guys going to Creekwood?” Felix asked.

“Yeah, Pilar’s a freshman and I’m a sophomore.”

Pilar smiled tightly. 

Felix's grin widened. “Awesome! We can all walk to school together, I’ll pick you up tomorrow at 7.”

Pilar looked away, she wasn’t feeling up to making new friends. Victor noticed that she wasn’t going to answer so he did. “Okay.”

Everyone stood there in an awkward silence before Felix made a motion for them to come closer and he started whispering. “So, I overheard you guys were barricaded out of your apartment and… I came down here to tell you that there’s an explanation for everything. You want to know what’s going on?” Felix bit his lips trying to contain his excitement. Pilar’s interest was picked so she leaned closer to both boys while Victor nodded, confused. “I really shouldn’t be telling you this, but since we’re best friends I feel like I have to.” Victor gave him a weird look and Felix paused for dramatic effect. “Your apartment is haunted.”

Pilar groaned and Victor furrowed his brow. “What?” He laughed but stopped upon seeing Felix’s face. “Are you being serious?”

Felix nodded. “One hundred percent.”

Pilar huffed and entered the apartment.

“Alright, man, well… thanks for letting us know.” Victor said after an awkward pause. He didn’t believe in ghosts, but he did believe, and knew for a fact, that people loved playing pranks on newcomers, maybe even Felix was involved in it. Victor went to enter his apartment.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, then! 7 am!” Felix said before walking away.

Pilar mouthed “What the fuck?” to Victor as soon as he entered, he just shrugged and went to join the rest of his family.

“Alright, Salazars! Go pick your bedrooms. The one with the en-suite is ours, though.”

Pilar and Adrian ran through the hallway that led to the bedrooms. “This one’s mine!”

“No! I got here first!” Adrian cried out.

“No, you didn’t, get out of my room.”

Adrian came back pouting, “She cheated.”

Isabel and Armando got to fixing the situation. Victor just went into the smallest room, and started moving his boxes into it, he didn’t mind.

Victor sat down on his new bed and looked around, trying to familiarize himself with his new bedroom. Right in front of him was a bare desk next to an empty bookcase, to his right there was a window and a nightstand, and, finally, to his left an empty old looking built-in wardrobe was at the feet of the bed, which was barely squeezed in the room. It was small, smaller than his room back in Texas but Victor was fine with that, he didn’t need much.

The rest of the day was spent arranging the boxes into their respectful rooms and unpacking the essential items they’d be needing right away.

Victor started unpacking some of his clothes and putting them into his wardrobe, since the next day he’d be starting at Creekwood High and he didn’t want to spend half of his morning trying to find some clothes.

By the end, he was exhausted from the moving and the unpacking so he laid down in his new bed with his clothes still on and fell asleep soon after.

* * *

Victor was awoken by the distinct feeling of someone watching him, he could feel it all over his body, the hair on the back of his neck standing, but he ignored it and tried to go back to sleep. He tossed and turned before giving up.

He sat up with his eyes still firmly closed and counted down to three. 

1, 2, 3… 

He quickly opened his eyes and found himself staring at his half-empty wardrobe, a dark figure stared right back at him, its eyes were their only discernible feature, Victor squinted his eyes and frowned. _What the hell?_

Victor sat up and quickly tried to turn on the lamp on his nightstand without breaking eye-contact. He fumbled around but ended up having to turn to find the button, he finally turned on the lamp and looked back to see what it was, but the figure was gone.

Victor crawled through his bed towards the wardrobe and moved around the few pieces of clothing he had hung up, there was nothing there.

Victor checked the time on his phone, it was 3:33 am, way too early for him. He groaned and threw himself back onto his bed, he could still catch a couple more hours of sleep.

* * *

Victor’s life at Shady Creek was going great. He had made some friends, he was out at school, which was something he was extremely proud of, he had entered the basketball team, and he had gotten a job at his local coffee shop. Everything was going as good as he had hoped. Except for the weird little things that kept happening in his apartment.

First of all, their door kept getting stuck whenever they left the house, Isabel had insisted on changing their locks but, even after that, the problem persisted. The door was always jammed somehow.

Things kept getting misplaced, Victor kept losing his notes from classes and his stuff, like wallet, keys, and phone, kept changing places, this seemed to be even worse whenever he was in a hurry, suddenly nothing was where he thought he had left it.

Then there were the more stereotypical things, like lights flickering, cabinets and drawers opening themselves, Isabel kept finding logical reasonings to this but Victor wasn’t entirely sure his mom was right.

Victor’s major issue in the apartment was whenever he was watching TV. He would pick something to watch and, a few minutes later, the channel would change by itself. So far he had had to watch a ton of Home & Health, and if he had to watch one more house renovation he would lose his mind.

And Victor kept waking up, every night, always at the same time, with the distinct feeling that someone was watching him. At first, he would make sure that the wardrobe doors were closed every night before going to sleep, but he gave up when they ended up open every single time. He never saw the dark figure again, but somehow Victor knew it was there.

All those things combined, quickly convinced Victor his apartment was indeed haunted, which was annoying, to say the least.

* * *

Victor walked over to the lunch table where all his friends were deep in conversation, Benji smiled at him as he motioned for Victor to sit on the seat beside him. Victor tried to hide his blush and complied.

“What are y’all talking about?” He asked everyone before taking a bite from his apple.

“Just this test we had.” Mia shrugged. 

“So, I’ve been thinking.” Felix started. “We should totally try to talk with the spirit in your apartment.”

“Oh my God! Yes!” Lake clapped, making Felix blush. “Imagine a post with actual proof of this ghost. That would go viral.”

“I don’t think Victor’s ghost wants to be viral.” Pilar scoffed.

“He’s not mine.” Victor answered immediately at the same time Mia spoke up.

“I don’t know, guys, shouldn’t we be like… respectful?”

Andrew chuckled and put his arm around Mia. “Babe, there’s no such thing as a ghost, we should do it, just to prove to Salazar that he doesn’t have a ghost for a roommate.”

Benji scoffed. “I don’t think Victor’s making it up, but I also don’t think we should talk to it, Mia’s right.”

Victor frowned. “I don’t know, I’m with Mia and Benji, what if we do this and then the spirit, or whatever it is, becomes violent or something?”

Mia nodded. “Yup, that’s a possibility, and I don’t think we should risk it.”

Lake pouted. “Aw, I think we should do it! What if we can help it? Maybe it needs to do something in order to, you know, pass over.”

Felix nodded this time. “Yes!”

“Felix, how did you even know that the apartment was haunted when I first arrived?” Victor asked remembering the first conversation he had had with him.

“I used to help the old tenants, they were a lovely old couple and they’d constantly talk about your ghost. They’d-”

“Not mine.”

“They’d call it ‘Simon’ and, actually, now that I remember, they said to me one time that Simon was always-” Felix said before stopping abruptly, quickly taking a huge bite out of his sandwich and looking away. “Nevermind, I- I don’t know what I’m talking about.” He said with his mouth full.

Victor’s lips formed a thin line. “Felix? What are you not telling me?” He asked, agitated.

“Nothing, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Felix looked at the sky. “What a lovely day, don’t you think?”

Everyone stared at him. Lake put her hand on Felix’s shoulder. “Felix, what is it?”

His resolve died as soon as Lake touched him. “Oh, um, Victor’sroomusedtobeSimon’sroom.” He spoke as quickly as possible.

“What?”

“Felix, just tell us.” Pilar said impatiently.

“The old couple never used Victor’s room, they never did anything with that room, and most times I visited them, the room was closed so… Yeah, they used to say that was Simon’s room… I’m sorry, I didn’t want to freak you out even more.”

Victor’s face was a mix of fear and bewilderment. “Oh… shit.”

“We should definitely talk to your roomie, what if he was like a hot policeman that tragically died on the job?” Lake said excitedly.

Benji shook his head in disbelief. “Wh-”

“I’ll bring the ouija board.” Andrew smirked. “This should be good.”

Victor groaned and put his head on his hands. “Fine.” He said with a muffled voice. “But if it tries to kill me I’m moving in with one of you.”

“My house is ghost free!” Benji said quickly, before blushing and looking away. “I mean, as far as I know, you don’t have to, I mean, it’s there if you- um, yeah.”

Everyone, except for Victor who still had his face in his hands, and Benji who suddenly found his lunch really interesting, exchanged knowing looks.

“There, it’s solved, you can move in with Benji.” Lake smiled. “Yay! Ghostbusters!” She sang.

Felix stared at her in shock. “I’m so in love with you.”

The bell rang signaling the end of the lunch period and everyone stood up to go to their respective classes.

* * *

Victor looked at his homework and groaned, Mr. Scott had assigned them several practice problems but he was having a really hard time understanding them. He fidgeted with his pencil and tried to concentrate.

“A driver slams on his brakes to try to avoid hitting a cow in the road…” He read the first problem out loud. “but did he hit it or not?” Victor muttered and started drawing a cow right beneath the problem. When he was done, he sighed and put the paper on his backpack, he’d solve them later.

He grabbed his English notes and started studying for the test he had the next day but he quickly got distracted picturing Benji in his barista uniform, how his tight shirt fitted him perfectly and how his arms looked while using the espresso machine. He scribbled Benji’s name on the corner of the page he was studying from and encircled it in a heart, he looked at the doodle and decided to draw some smaller hearts around it, just for good measure.

Victor shook his head. “What am I doing? I have to study.” He reprimanded himself and got back to his notes. 

When he was done studying, he took a shower and went to sleep.

Victor slept through the entire night for the first time since he had moved to Shady Creek. The next morning, one of the papers where he had his english notes was nowhere to be found.

* * *

“Pilar? Have you entered my room at all? I lost part of my english notes and I have a test later today.”

“And why would I steal your english notes?”

There was a knock on the door and Victor opened it, Felix waved. “Hey, man, you look refreshed! Are you ready to leave?”

Victor grabbed his backpack and nodded. “Yeah.”

They arrived at school, Felix had a test during first period so he said goodbye and ran to his class. 

Victor saw Benji at his locker and walked up to him. “Hey.”

Benji turned around. “Oh, hey, Victor.”

“Quick question.”

Benji grabbed a notebook from his locker. “Yeah?”

“Have you done those practice problems Mr. Scott gave us?”

“Yeah, they’re due tomorrow.”

“I know, I just don’t really understand them…” Victor laughed nervously. “Could you come over and help me out after class today? Or do you have a shift at Brasstown? ‘Cause if you do, that’s okay, I was just wonder-”

“Sure, no problem, I'm free.” Benji smiled at him. 

“Good, I’ll see you later, then.” Victor bit his lip and returned Benji’s smile shyly.

Victor guided Benji to his apartment, they climbed up the stairs and walked to the apartment 206, Victor opened the door and gave Benji a look.

“Weird, this thing is always jammed.” 

“Maybe someone got here before you and fixed it?” Benji rationalized.

Victor shook his head but shouted. “Hey, I’m home, is anyone here?” No answer. “It’s just us.”

“Well, for the record, I believe you.” Benji winked at him and entered the apartment. Victor cursed internally and followed Benji trying to get his blush under control.

“We can work in my room, over here.” Victor guided Benji to his room.

“Hey, can I use your bathroom?” Benji asked while leaving his stuff on the floor besides Victor’s bed.

“Yeah, go ahead.” Victor told him which room was the bathroom and got his math notebook out of his backpack, he read the first problem a couple times and started trying to solve it.

Benji walked back into the room a few minutes later, “Oh, good! You’ve already started, how is it-” Benji tripped and fell right into Victor’s arms, wrinkling his physics homework. “Oof.”

“Woah, are you okay?” Victor asked, Benji’s face was so close to his he could see all of his freckles and his eyelashes. His heart started beating abnormally fast and for a brief second he worried he might be having a heart attack.

“Um, fine… What the hell?” Benji looked confused, he stood up and sat beside Victor on his bed. “I swear I felt as if someone tripped me, someone grabbed my feet.”

Victor chuckled. “Okay…” 

“No, I’m serious.” Benji looked Victor in the eye. “I swear.”

Victor tried to stifle his laughter with his hands. “Maybe it was the ghost.” He joked.

Benji frowned. “Maybe.” He shook his head. “I thought you said it was friendly.”

Victor gave him a look. “Are you serious? Just admit you’re a klutz.” He said, pushing Benji affectionately.

Benji rolled his eyes and laughed. “Whatever, let’s solve these problems.”

They worked in comfortable silence for a while, Benji helped Victor whenever he got stuck in a problem and they managed to finish them all pretty quickly.

“Are you hungry? We could order a pizza. Unless you have something else to do, I mean, totally up to you…”

Benji smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, I can stay.”

“Cool.” Victor went to order the pizza and Benji took this time to look around Victor’s room. His walls had basketball posters in them, several trophies and medals were scattered in his bookcase and there were a bunch of papers scattered around his desk. Benji stretched at the same time one of the papers on the desk fell from it. He frowned and walked over to pick it up. 

He looked at it, it was a page from Victor’s English notes, he was about to put it back on the desk when the corner of the page caught his eye. Benji felt all his blood rushing to his face, his name was encircled in a heart with several smaller hearts all around it. 

Benji heard Victor coming back so he folded the paper and hastily put it back on the desk.

“Pizza is on its way.”

Benji tried to keep his face as neutral as possible before turning around. “Awesome.”

“Should we watch a movie or something?” Victor asked, nervously scratching the back of his neck.

“Yeah, sounds good.” 

They walked to the living room and Victor turned the TV on, he entered the Netflix app and they both discussed their options before settling down on watching Alex Strangelove since Victor hadn’t seen it before. Not even 5 minutes in, the movie changed, right before their eyes. A scary tune started playing, followed by an off-screen voice, half of a doll’s head appeared on the screen.

“What the-?” Benji’s eyes widened.

Victor groaned. “Simon!”

“Oh my God, there really is a ghost in your apartment.” Benji looked amused. “And he wants us to watch…” He checked the title of the movie playing. “The Conjuring? ...Oh man.” 

Victor heard Benji gulping. “We can do something else, let’s turn it off.” He got up to turn the TV off.

“No, don’t! We don’t want to make him angry, let’s just watch it.” Benji said. He hated horror movies, but maybe watching one with Victor wasn’t the worst idea ever.

Victor sat back down. “Alright.”

Two women on the screen described how their doll had been possessed, there was a flashback to them arriving home and finding a note that read ‘miss me?’ in red crayon. The doll appeared laying on a hallway and Victor heard Benji muttering “oh no”. The doll was holding red crayons and had ruined an entire room with them, so one of the women threw the doll in a trash can. 

Benji shook his head. “Nope, that was not a smart decision, the doll rules your life now, just accept it.” 

There was a loud pounding on the screen that made Benji jump and he hid himself in Victor’s shoulder. “Shit shit shit.” Benji muttered. “What’s happening? Why are they silent? Is it the doll? It returned didn’t it?”

Victor contained his amused laughter and put his arm around Benji, just for comfort, not because he wanted to hug him or anything like that, bros supporting bros, that’s all it was.

“They just found the note the doll made, the one they had thrown in the trash can along with-” There was another loud pounding that made them both jump.

“Oh God.” Benji cried out.

“And… the doll’s inside the house.” Victor said as one of the two women went to open the door where the pounding was coming from. “Jesus Christ, don’t open it! Come on, woman!” Victor exclaimed.

“ _We’re beyond terrified. We don’t know what’s going on or what to do. Can you help us?”_ One of the women said.

 _“Yes, we can. Now, firstly, there’s no such thing as Anabelle, and there never was.”_ The man helping them said. 

A woman that presumably was with the man continued. “ _Ghosts don’t possess such power. I think what we have here is something extremely manipulative. It’s something inhuman.”_

“No shit.” Benji exclaimed from his place in Victor’s chest.

 _“What’s an inhuman spirit?”_ One of the women asked.

_“It’s something that’s never walked the Earth in human form. It’s something demonic.”_

“Nope, that’s it. Simon, you’re not allowed to inhabit Adrian’s toys, sorry. I’m okay with our nightly rendezvous as long as you leave the toys alone, alright?” Victor said loudly towards the ceiling.

Benji shivered in Victor’s arms.

The woman that was explaining everything to the other two kept talking. _“The doll was used as a conduit. It was moved around to give the impression of possession. Demonic spirits don’t possess things, they possess people. It wanted to get inside of you._ ”

“Simon, I swear to God, you better not possess me.”

The doorbell rang making Benji yelp. “OH MY GOD.”

Victor couldn’t contain his laughter any longer. He paused the movie and got up unwillingly to get the pizza. 

“We can turn it off, y’know?” Victor said, returning with their food.

“I don’t want to get you in trouble with Simon, he must’ve put this incredibly ironic movie for a reason.” Benji explained. “Let’s just keep watching, I’m fine.” He said more so to convince himself rather than Victor. 

“I mean, so far he hasn’t tried to leave me notes, so…” Victor shrugged.

Benji stared at him. “You’re weirdly calm about this whole thing.”

“I don’t know, I don’t think he’s dangerous.” Victor explained.

“Those women didn’t think Anabelle was dangerous, either.” Benji sighed. “I don’t want to risk it, let’s just finish this damn movie.” He resumed the movie. Victor sat back down and they both ate the pizza in silence. 

Victor kept stealing glances at Benji, Benji who was clearly terrified of the movie and kept jumping and screaming every time anything remotely frightening happened on the screen. Victor was touched by Benji’s willingness to watch a scary movie just for his sake.

As soon as they were done with the pizza, Benji jumped into Victor’s arms at the first jump scare that came on screen. Victor smiled, secretly enjoying holding Benji and thanking Simon for his movie choice, not knowing that the other boy was doing the exact same thing.

“We’re doing this thing tonight.” Was the first thing Victor was told the next day at lunch.

“This thing?” He asked, furrowing his brows in confusion.

“The seance. Tonight. Pilar told us your parents will be gone with Adrian, which gives us the perfect opportunity to do it.” Lake explained.

“I don’t know,” Victor groaned. “I’ve finally been sleeping again, I don’t want to piss him off.”

Benji turned to him. “We won’t do it if you don’t want to.” Lake rolled her eyes.

“Come on, Salazar, it’ll be fun. Don’t chicken out.”

“Shut up, Andrew.” Victor looked at his friends, most of them seemed to be excited about the seance and maybe he’d get some answers from the ghost. Against his better judgement, he caved in. “Ugh, fine.”

* * *

“Lake, write this down. ‘Mia Brooks is not in agreement with this whole thing.’ You hear that, Ghost? I don’t want to do this!” Mia screamed into the air, and hid herself behind Andrew.

“I don’t think he’s deaf, Mia, you don’t have to scream.” Pilar rolled her eyes. 

Victor and Pilar had spent the whole afternoon preparing their apartment for the seance, they had moved their living room furniture to leave an empty space in the middle where everyone could sit. Lake and Felix had spent most of the day planning and getting whatever they might need, and Andrew and Mia, true to his word, had arrived with an old and dusty Ouija Board.

“It’s going to be fine, I bet it won’t talk to us ‘cause it’s all in Salazar’s head.” Andrew comforted his girlfriend. “If it gets too scary, we’ll leave, ok?”

Mia nodded. “Alright.”

“Felix, are you sure we need all these candles? This is kind of a fire hazard.” Victor asked, looking around at, at least, a dozen candles scattered around his living room.

There was a knock on the door and everyone jumped. “Jesus!” Victor screamed.

“Nope! Just me, Benji.” Benji answered, his voice muffled by the closed door.

Mia opened the door.

Benji entered and looked around. “Oh wow, those are… a lot of candles.”

“That’s what I said. What are they even for, Felix?” Victor asked.

“It illuminates its path to us, we don’t want Simon to get lost.” Felix explained. “Also, it might communicate through them.”

“By setting the apartment on fire? I don’t know about this.” Victor crossed his arms.

Benji raised a plastic bag he had been carrying. “I didn’t know what to bring so I got sage.”

“No!” Lake screamed. “I read an Allure article that said that sage is for clearing and if we do it before talking to it, the ghost will either not show up or show up angry.” She said matter-of-factly.

Benji hid the plastic bag. “Oh… Sorry, I guess.” He shrugged. He left the plastic bag in the Salazar’s kitchen and joined everyone else at the dining table.

Andrew put the Ouija Board at the center of the living room floor. Everyone sat down around it. “Alright, the rules are pretty simple, do not taunt the spirit, don’t use the ouija board while alone-”

“As if I’d ever do that.” Benji interrupted. “Sorry, keep going.”

“We can all ask questions but someone should be assigned as the leader to communicate with the spirit, I think it should be Victor,” Everyone nodded. “And someone else should keep track of the answers, Lake, that’d be you.” She held up her phone. “It’s important to always keep at least a hand on the planchette and don’t forget to end the session by saying ‘goodbye’.

Everyone nodded. Mia scooted herself closer to Andrew. “We’re all playing?” More nods.

Victor shook his head. “Pilar, I think you should just watch, just in case, mom and dad will kill me if anything happens to you.”

She glared at him. “That’s so unfair.”

“Hey, I’m letting you stay, just- I don’t want you involved with this.”

She sighed reluctantly. “Whatever.” She stood up and plopped down on their sofa.

“You can write everything down, since I’ll have my hands occupied.” Lake smiled at her.

“Yeah, okay.” Pilar nodded and grabbed her phone, ready to take notes.

“Has anyone else done this before?” Lake asked. Everyone, except Andrew, shook their heads.

“No.”

“Never.”

“I’m not even sure why I’m doing it now.”

Lake sighed. “Alright.”

“Everyone put two fingers in the planchette.” Andrew instructed. “We need to start circling the board to warm it up.”

Everyone moved the planchette around the board together. After several times, Andrew made them stop in the center of the board, and he nodded for Victor to start asking.

Victor took a deep breath, nervously looking at his friends. “Is anyone here with us?” He asked quietly.

“You need to sp-” Andrew stopped abruptly when the planchette started moving towards the ‘yes’ in the board. 

The candles flickered, and Felix gasped excitedly. “It’s happening.”

“Fuck off, who’s doing it?” Andrew looked around without taking his hand off the planchette.

Everyone denied being the one to move it. 

“Ask something else, Victor.” Felix prompted. “Ask him to tell us his real name.”

Victor nodded. “Is your real name Simon?” Everyone waited for several seconds but there was no movement. 

“Rephrase it and ask again.” Lake ordered.

Victor nodded. “What’s your real name?”

The planchette started moving towards the ‘A’. “Pilar, write this down.” Andrew instructed.

They waited for the planchette to stop moving. Victor and Benji exchanged looks, Victor could tell that Benji was terrified. Felix saw the exchange and asked. “What did it say?”

“It said ‘Annabelle’.” Pilar frowned. “Like the doll?”

“Exactly like the doll!” Benji exclaimed. “This is bad, we just watched The Conjuring, we should stop this.”

Victor shook his head, he didn’t believe it, the dark figure he had seen several times was clearly a boy or a man, not a doll or a little girl for that matter.

“Quit playing around. You’re not Annabelle. Is your real name Simon?” He tried again.

The planchette immediately moved to ‘yes’.

Mia sighed. “You should be a stand-up comedian, Simon.”

The planchette moved to ‘no’.

“Is anyone moving it? Be honest.” Andrew asked, perplexed. Everyone denied doing it.

Victor though for a few moments before asking another question. “Why did you stop waking me up at night and jamming our door?”

The planchette didn’t move for several seconds. 

“Let’s just ask someth-” Mia started to say, when the planchette finally moved. Victor felt like it moved for hours, this was the longest answer Simon had given. 

“You and I are the same.” Pilar read out loud. “What is he talking about?”

“Maybe he’s hispanic.” Felix thought out loud.

“We should ask him more juicy stuff.” Lake proposed. “Am I going to marry Felix?”

Felix gasped. “This is not a Magic 8-ball, Lake! He doesn’t know the future.”

The planchette moved to ‘yes’.

Lake squealed. “I knew it!”

“Or he does, who am I to judge.” Felix shrugged. Lake kissed him on the cheek.

“I wanna try!” Pilar said from the couch. “Ask him if I’ll ever get back with Eric.”

Victor repeated the question, the planchette moved to ‘no’, and then kept moving.

“He's an ass.” Pilar read aloud what the ghost had spelled on the board. She smiled, sadly. “Yeah, I guess Simon’s right.”

Mia smiled for the first time since the game had started. “I have one. Since Victor won’t tell us, who is he into?”

Victor’s eyes widened. “No, no, Simon, don’t, you have permission to possess me as long as you don’t answer that, don’t!”

The planchette moved against Victor’s protests. 

“Oh my God.” Mia squealed when the planchette stopped moving. She covered her mouth with her free hand.

“You can not possess me, you traitor.” Victor buried his head in his free arm,

Pilar doubled over from laughter. “This is amazing.”

Lake and Felix looked at each other and tried to hide their smiles.

Benji blushed and tried his best to keep a neutral face but he still ended up smiling, he pushed his hair back with his free hand. “And does he like him back?” He asked, shyly.

Everyone followed the planchette as it moved to ‘yes’. Victor looked at Benji. “Oh.”

Everyone stared at them, waiting for something to happen.

“Well, this is an interesting development. And I think we should stop the game right now.” Victor stood up. “Guys, this was fun. Such an interesting experience.” He smiled tightly. “Could you give us just a second?” He grabbed Benji’s arm and guided him to his room.

They heard their friends whooping and clapping, but they ignored them. They sat down on Victor’s bed. 

Both boys stayed silent for a few seconds before Victor finally asked the question that was on his mind. “So, um, was Simon telling the truth?” He asked, with his hands nervously fidgeting in his lap.

Benji grabbed Victor’s chin gently and made him make eye-contact, once the other boy was looking at him, Benji nodded. “Yeah, he was.” Both boys exchanged nervous smiles.

“That’s… awesome.” Victor said, Benji leaned forward and Victor closed his eyes at the same time their lips crashed together. Every nerve ending in Victor’s body came alive. They kissed for what felt like forever but was merely a few seconds. “Wow.” Victor exclaimed, giggling.

Benji bit his lower lip. “Yeah.” He answered, breathless. “I should have told you sooner, I’m sorry, I just wasn’t sure, and then-”

“That’s okay, this is perfect.” He kissed Benji again, their lips moving against one another in perfect rhythm. 

Victor pressed his forehead with Benji’s, and sighed contentedly. “I really owe Simon a big one. I might even let him possess me for a day or two.”

Benji chuckled but turned serious quickly, he hugged Victor tightly. “Don’t even joke with that.”

“Oh shit.” Victor stood up quickly.

Benji followed him suit, alarmed. “What is it?”

“We never ended the game. I forgot to say goodbye.” They heard a scream coming from the living room.

“Shit! Mia!”

They both ran to the living room, everyone was staring at the Ouija Board in shock. Mia had both of her hands covering her mouth. “It moved by itself.” She pointed at the planchette.

Felix was holding Lake tightly, she seemed to be shaking. “I don’t- I don’t get it, how did that happened?”

Victor frowned. “What did it say?”

Andrew shook his head. “We were just playing around. I asked everyone if we should leave you guys alone and it freaking moved to ‘yes’.”

Benji frowned. “We forgot to end the session, let’s just do that.”

Everyone sat down around the Ouija Board once again. They moved the planchette towards ‘goodbye’. “Simon, I think I know how you and I are the same, thank you.” Victor said. “Goodbye.”

Lake sighed and hugged Felix. He held her tightly. “That was fun… But we really should go.”

Mia and Andrew nodded. “Yeah, it’s late, your parents will be back soon.” Mia grabbed Andrew’s Ouija board. “We’ll see you on Monday.” They both waved and left the apartment.

Felix and Lake blew off the candles and put them in a plastic bag. “I guess we’re leaving, too. Good luck, guys!” Lake winked.

Felix made finger guns at Victor. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow! Bye, Benji!” 

Pilar stood up from her place on the couch. “I’m going to lock myself in my room with very loud music. You’re welcome.” 

Victor blushed. “Um, I guess I should put everything back where it belongs.”

Benji nodded. “Yeah, I’ll help you.”

They quickly rearranged Victor’s living room, and sat down on the couch. 

“Well, this-”

“I was wond-”

They chuckled, Victor motioned for Benji to speak first. “Um, I was just wondering if you’d like to hang out tomorrow? Maybe in my place this time, as I’ve said before, it’s ghost free. No offense, Simon.”

Victor felt his smile widening. He nodded eagerly. “I’d love that.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is an official PSA not to play with a Ouija Board unless your ghost is Simon.


End file.
